Heortland

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 23:48:31 +1200 (NZST)


Joerg Baumgartner:

>Peter mentions Arkat summoning Silver Age heroes from Caladraland and
>Esrolia. Does this mean that Arkat visited the Vent and Necropolis in
>Esrolia (which is one place where Vogarth did something)?

Arkat may have visited the Vent and the Necropolis but I am not going to say that he summoned Tessele or Vogarth from either of those places.

>Wouldn't he have summoned Heort on Arrowtop Mountain (cf Lawstaff Quest)?

Why? Heort did not retire there (nor would Arkat have gone on the I Fought We Won Quest). He retired somewhere near Backford according to RQ Companion p27.

>> I think by summoning heroes, Arkat is dependant on the _local_ mythic
>> geography rather than using the heroes of a culture.

>Yes. And why couldn't this have been outside of the modern, restricted
>territory of Heortland?

We are not talking about an God Learnerd bog-standard Orlanthi shrine where one can summon Orlanth. We are talking about the resting place of a hero. Thus there would be a restricted geographical region where he spends his winter years. Since Arkat fought summoned King Heort within the borders of the modern day Holy Country, it follows that he found King Heort there.

>> [The God Forgot] demigod founder disappeared when the Print erupted.

>Do you mean the volcanic eruption (Lodril's spear thrust into Krarsht)?
>Or a later chaos eruption?

I meant a later chaos eruption. IMO the Print festered for some time and then disgorged its contents in the Great Darkness before Ash was dumped on it by an air god. I can't help thinking of the Standing Dead Trees I saw at Mt St Helens. FWIW I thought Lodril erupted at Vent after being cast down to earth there?

>>>To address your question: None of the Sartarite warriors are called
>>>knights. This indicates that they didn't share the Malkioni influence
>>>when they emigrated.

>> Or that the position of knights was created after they left.

>However, the "Sartarite nobles" fight as moderately heavy cavalry in
>Dragon Pass. IMO an inheritance from Arkat's knight companions, watered
>down but handed down over the ages.

To rephrase then, the position was westernized after people started leaving for Sartar.

>> Given that the Heortlanders bend over backwards to ensure the
>> Knights are one of the free classes, there seems to be very
>> little difference between the Knight and the Thane.

>A thane is a land-owning noble, whereas a knight is a landless mounted
>warrior in the service of nobles and "chieftains" (chief thanes).

Not necessarily. The Vandervasse of Seshnela own land yet are reckoned knights according to the Player's Book: Genertela. Likewise the Heortlander Knights should own (or be allocated by their clan or lord) some land.

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